Virtual Residency Day Thirty-Three, Attention

Many disciplines exhort us to pay attention. I try to pay attention before I try to make sense. This is what I am paying attention to: Reuters reported today that Prius, GM, BMW, and DaimlerChrysler will invest over $1 billion to create a super-hybrid to out-compete Toyota by 2007.

Meanwhile, the lobsters are migrating North from traditional New England fishing grounds in search of colder waters. Polar Bears are still dying of starvation. Industrialists are bragging about how they have a jet plane as a second "car".

Is this a race between the smart and the foolish?

Here on Vinalhaven, the first touches of red are coming way too early to the sumac leaves. August, usually our driest month, has seen unwanted rain. I keep thinking about the steadily lowering watertable in Delhi and aridity in Italy.

Weather patterns everywhere are disrupted, bringing instability and uincertainty to a world already teetering in securities. Historically, when people feel unsure, they look for a target: a dangerous option in dangerous times.